EU SUMMIT LATEST, PART 2: Agreeing not completing (10.45pm update)

Leaders are currently chatting over dinner about plans for a banking union.

They were supposed to hold talks before their meal but I’m told that a session with Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, went on much longer than expected.

Schulz was keen to discuss (at length) who should pick up the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the EU.

Over dinner, leaders have discussed the first six points of the set of conclusions that will be published at the end of their meeting. This mostly relates to the EU’s compact to boost growth and jobs and measures to strengthen the single market. Nothing new here.

One word was changed in point six, which relates to the creation of a single banking supervisor.

“The European Council invites the legislators to proceed with work on the legislative proposals on the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) as a matter of priority, with the objective of AGREEING [previously, completing] it by the end of the year.”

The change is subtle but does appear to imply that there are some changes to the original timetable.

Jonathan Faull, the European Commission's internal market (including banking) director-general, has tweeted: "Leaders likely to agree regulation on #ECB supervision by end 2012. Major step forward to #EU #BankingUnion."

Leaders are now discussing more of the finer points of the single banking supervisor plan with speculation that Angela Merkel will agree to a 1 January 2014 start date for all 6,000 banks. In return, the phasing-in period could be slower. Perhaps, conveniently, leaving the bulk of Germany’s savings banks until after the German elections.

There are 21 points of the final statement to be agreed, although some of these will be left until the morning.